🧈 Sciabica's California Olive Oil: Mission + Arbequina (Buttery & Sweet)

Most of the time when I try a new olive oil, my brain is quick to evaluate the overall flavor, how peppery it is, and how it compares to others that I'm familiar with. This olive oil -- Sciabicas Mission + Arbequina (Buttery & Sweet) completely made my tongue do a barrel roll. 🦊 It lived up to the expectation set by its name. Was I eating olive oil, or butter?

It was so surprising to taste for the first time. Is that butter? I loved it. You could easily put this on a baked potato and it would pair nicely. I found that I loved it for that flavor, but also being so unique from anything else I have tried.

I think the buttery flavor might primarily be from the Arbequina, because my first sample of Sigona's Arbequina was also buttery. I will need to test this hypothesis. I also eventually found that I only wanted it in scoped samples. I could not, for example, eat my entire dinner with this as the predominant choice. Flavors that are gigantic and magnificent often are best enjoyed carefully. That said, I finished this quickly, in easily under a week. Can I say the bottle was small? 😁 A size of 250ml is only a little more than a cup.

Some additional stats from their website:

• First Cold Pressed
• California Grown
• Great for: Replacing Butter
• Harvest: Spring 2025
• Phenols: ~200ppm
• FFA: 0.24%

I was not sure what "FFA" referred to, and it looks like it is free fatty acid, with lower values being better:

Free Fatty Acid (FFA) in olive oil measures the percentage of free oleic acid, acting as a key indicator of oil quality, freshness, and proper processing. A lower FFA percentage means higher quality; extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) must have an FFA of 0.8% or less, though top-tier oils are often below 0.3%

It is used as an indicator of quality, and a low FFA means that healthy, fresh olives were pressed immediately. A higher value means they were overripe, not fresh, or poorly processed. I am not sure how to verify that a specific bottle truly matches that spec, but I will read more about it and try to figure it out.

I love that this produced is in California! I'll note they have a lot of "flavored" olive oils, which are not to my liking, but I will want to try their Arbosana variety, which is advertised as robust and peppery. And you know what is ridiculously cool? They have a tasting room and shop on the way to Yosemite! Road trip, anyone, paired with some mountain hiking and biking? Yes, please! 😎

Queue stats:

• Finished for review: 4
• Actively in consumption: 18

Next up will likely be Atlas and Garcia de la Cruz. Until next time - keep it golden! 🌞